Black Family
The Black Family
Family Head: Sirius Black II
Home: London, England, United Kingdom
Wealth: Well-To-Do
Blood Status: Pure-Blood
This represents what is typical for the Black family. It does not necessarily apply to every branch.

Family History

The first Black known to history was actually called White; Blancandrin, or Andrin the White, was a Basque Wizard of the Pyrenées who made his fortune by playing the various local powers in the region against one another, pitting the Basque princes against themselves and Emperor Charlemagne while simultaneously ingratiating himself to all sides, ultimately winning himself a role as advisor to the Imperial Court. When he passed away, his descendants continued in their roles as imperial advisors — in reality magically manipulating the kings and nobility of West Francia to fulfill their every whim and neglect the proper running of their territories. This earned them the lasting enmity of many of the small hamlet witches and wizards who would ultimately go on to found Beauxbatons.

Two centuries of excess and decadence with little attention to the outside world led to the complete implosion of West Francia's ruling monarch. Louis V had his mind and maturity destroyed by the constant memory charms of his advisor, Georges Blanc; he died from a hunting accident a year into his reign, after mistakenly walking off a cliff. Louis' successor, Hugh Capet, did not trust Georges Blanc and ordered him hunted. The Blanc family had to spend several decades trying to court the favor of minor Frankish nobility in the outskirts of the realm.

Becoming hated even by other Frankish witches and wizards, the family's dismissal of non-magical humans turned into an intense loathing for them and those that would aid them. By 1066, only one Blanc remained — a bastard child, a young boy by the name of Olivier Blanc who was of little renown — he slipped away by ship over the English Channel to Britain, convinced France was lost to them forever and thinking that the Normans who had just invaded England would not be eager to return him to the Capetian hunters.

In London, Olivier eked out a living as a con artist; his life took a significant turn for the positive when he attempted to pull one over on a pair of men: Godric Gryffindor and Salazar Slytherin, still friends at that point. Godric took a liking to the boy's boldness and Salazar to the amount of foresight and planning that had gone into his caper; together, they introduced Olivier to Hogwarts, where he quickly was Anglicized by the natives. 'Blanc', which was hard to properly say, slowly slipped to 'Black', which better described his dark hair and eyes anyway.

Olivier became the first patriarch of the Black family, telling his heirs of their secret history, but telling those outside of it little. He resolved to rebuild, but rather than repeating his ancestors' mistakes and attempting to ride off the work of Muggles, Olivier pushed the Black family into working only with wizards; that was their only specialization. Wandmakers, white wizards, necromancers, healers — they would do anything they had a talent or care to do, but they would not assist Muggles.

In the wake of the Witch Trials that swept Europe and America, the Blacks were thrust forward from unusual occult specialists to the forefront of the British Wizarding World as vocal proponents of separation from Muggles, surging into the offices of the Ministry of Magic for centuries, and for a time becoming the richest family in wizarding, bar none.

However, their long period of dominance has begun to show many cracks; their de facto reign as the family of supreme influence from 1692 to the late 19th century has slowed and even started to reverse between long political maneuvering on the part of the Malfoy family, corruption investigations that scandalized the family and saw much of their (still-considerable) wealth reduced, the increased migration of foreign wizards to Britain, and a seemingly endless influx of new muggle-borns and half-bloods as the Ministry's ability to identify magical children has improved.

While the Blacks still possess a sterling reputation among pure-bloods, the Blacks are keenly aware that reputation is a kind of soft power, and insufficient for their wants by itself."

Family Identity

Blacks are usually born with brown or black hair. Londoners all, their gestures and accent reflect the region.

Family Crest: A dog crested pot helmet with atop a field of black and a white chevron with a trio of golden stars in a chevron pattern above the white chevron and a wand standing tall in the center of the shield. Each side mantled by a pair of rampant red eyed black dogs in front of golden filigree leaves.

Motto: "Toujours Pur." Which means: "Always Pure."

Reputation

The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black is one of the Sacred Twenty-Eight, and is one of the largest and oldest pure-blood families in Britain. There is no family in the wizarding world that more zealously guards its blood purity; their disdain for "dirty blood" is well known. Like the Malfoys, the Blacks are connected by blood and marriage to many other pure-blood families. Unlike the Gaunts the Black Family stay pure without going to the extreme of immediate family marriages.

Family Members

Family members bearing the Black name:

Alphard Arcturus Cassiopeia Cy Hesper Irma Lucretia Lycoris Melania Nigellus Orion Phineas Pollux Regulus Sirius Walburga

Blood relatives without the Black name:

Belvina Boudica Callidora Caractacus Cedrella Charis Dorea Isla Marius Tasciovanus

Family Tree

Black_Family_Tree.png

Connections and Relationships

Malfoy: The Black family's ties to the Malfoys are complicated; prior to the International Statute of Secrecy, the Malfoys tended to think of the Blacks as zealots who would cut off their nose to spite their face and the Blacks returned the favor by considering the Malfoys unprincipled hedonistic weasels; this didn't stop them from intermarrying regularly, however, since both tended their bloodlines well. Following the Statute's institution the two have become staunch allies as the Malfoys fully embraced purism, but despite long ties, the Blacks still hold the Malfoys in mild suspicion as fair-weather friends who are not above a bit of backstabbing for extra prestige.

Abbott: They may be pure-blooded, but as a whole, the family is dangerous, constantly teetering on the edge of muggle sympathizing. When a right-thinking Abbott comes along, the Blacks are happy to welcome them into the family and make use of their noble blood, at least.

Lestrange: The most loyal allies of the Black family, the Lestranges are principled and useful attack dogs when a Black doesn't want to get directly involved, but is willing to finance another. Frequent marriage partners.

Shacklebolt: Despite many attempts on the part of the Black family to arrange useful intermarriages between themselves and the Shacklebolts, the Shacklebolt family has kept its distance and produced many key magistrates that prosecuted the corruption charges against the Blacks, leading to stewing resentment between the two families.

Family Statistics

Influence: 57 = 50+1d10; (Blacks were given as a 50-59 Influence)
Lands: 1 = 18 (Base) + -10 (Location) + -14 (Bad Events) + 7 (Footing + Favor)
Law: -2 = 20 (Base) + 0 (Location) + -23 (Bad Events) + 1 (Footing) +
Population: 26 = Current Population, and closed for new members (Raw Result: 19 = 24 Base + 5 Location + -10 Bad Events)
Power: -2 = 21 (Base) + -10 (Location) + -18 (Bad Events) + 5 (Good Events)
Wealth: 45 = 40+1d10; (Blacks were given as a Well-To-Do)
Founding: Ancient
Historical Events = 9

+------+-----------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
| Roll#| Event     | Influ. | Lands  |  Law   |  Pop.  | Power  | Wealth |
+------+-----------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
| ##   |  EVENT    |  ---   |  ---   |  ---   |  ---   |  ---   |   ---  |
+------+-----------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
| Total Results:   |   #    |   #    |   #    |   #    |   #    |    #   |
+------+-----------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
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